Two child pornography possession arrests in Bryan within days of the New Year

BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) – Details have been released after a Bryan man was arrested at a home Thursday and charged with possession of child pornography.

Federal agents have been busy across Brazos County over the last few weeks as this comes to the fifth child pornography-related arrest in the area since November.

Five total arrests were made in Brazos County involving child pornography in 2023. But less than two weeks into 2024, two men are behind bars on those charges.

Thursday, 25-year-old Reuben Boyer was arrested at a home in Austins Colony. According to court documents, he was in possession of ‘numerous’ files on a thumb drive containing graphic and abusive images.

In discussions with officers and agents, documents show Boyer admitted to viewing child sexual assault material (CSAM) for five years now, mostly of young boys ages 5 to 10.

Investigators found much of the material was downloaded from ‘the dark web’ and saved by Boyer.

In addition to downloads, Boyer admitted to officers “he had been banned/kicked off of at least one social media platform for contacting underage children on the platform.”

Boyer is then said to advise officers he “once used a live video chat platform” to victimize a 14-year-old boy.

Boyer was released from the Brazos County Detention Center on a $20,000 bond Friday.

This arrest came just one day after 47-year-old Joel Garcia was arrested, also in Bryan. Garcia was wanted out of Montgomery County, for his role in what law enforcement says is the distribution of more than 22,000 images of child pornography into The Woodlands area. According to charges these images contained infants and toddlers.

This is a crime targeting young and vulnerable kids, that experts say is exacerbated by the internet. Including, widespread access to the dark web.

“It’s out there you just download it like you do Google. A lot of people use that there are other random domain generators out there that people will do to try to hide themselves while they’re going to these dark websites and looking at these photos,” retired officer Donnie Manry said.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation says perpetrators look different than many people think they will. Commonly, it is a family member, neighbor or friend.

“It’s one of those things that happens in the shadows, an individual’s spouse, best friend, parents, brother or sister may have no knowledge that this individual is involved in, and receiving, distributing, producing or possessing child pornography. So there is really no key indicator as far as who could be the subject of such a crime,” Supervisory Special Agent Charles Wilkes said.

More information on local arrests can be found on our In Depth page here.